Note: Since my Photoshop is set to German, I may not be able to give you the exact menu translation.

Preparation1. Before we start, you should download a little useful tool that turns the active window translucent. I personally use PeekThrough for this. Place the action on a hotkey (Alt+B for me). With this, we can align the machine in game to the grid in Photoshop. You should also install the Photo Map to your mod folder (C:\Users\User\Documents\My Games\FarmingSimulator2017\mods)

2. Start the game in windowed mode, but at your max. resolution (1920x1080 at Full HD)
Note: I work with a 4k monitor, so my screenshots may appear giant.

3. Important! The graphics settings have to be adjusted.
Options -> Advanced Graphics Settings -> Multisample Antialiasing disabled (this is important to neatly cut out the machine). All other options should be set to max.

4. Start a new savegame on the Photo Map. Hide the interface with the console by using gsToggleFlightAndNoHUDMode and press „O“ to activate the function.

5. Open Photoshop and create a new document with 512x512 px.

6. Download and place the grid from below in that photoshop document.

7. Change the layer settings to Linear Dodge and the opacity to 60%. Lock the layer so you don’t move it accidentally.

8. Zoom into the document so that it nearly fills the entire height of your monitor (It should be a zoom of 200% with a Full HD monitor)

9. Make sure the document is centered in your screen. Keep the Photoshop window open in the background and switch the focus back onto the game.

10. Now you can buy your mod. As an example, I used the HCB Fastrac 3000 Xtra.

11. Make use of your tool to make the game window translucent and align the machine so that it approximately fits within the grid. All parts of the machine, including its shadow, should be within the document dimensions that can be seen in the background.

12. Take a screenshot in the game by pressing „Print“. You can find your screenshots at C:\Users\User\Documents\My Games\FarmingSimulator2017\screenshots

13. Open the screenshot in Photoshop. If you’re satisfied with the result, you can close the game now.Tip: If you’ve got multiple machines, keep the camera at the exact same location, sell your machine and buy the next one. This way, all machines should end up with the same perspective.

The Crop Out14. Remove the background layer state from the layer.

15. Take the wand tool (W) with the following settings:
Range: 32, Disable Anti-Alias, Disable Adjacent, Disable Picking up from all Layers.

16. Click with the wand on the „horizon“. Pay attention that no part of the windshield is selected. If that’s the case, remove that part with the lasso tool manually. Watch out that Anti-Aliasing is disabled for all tools.

17. You’ll notice that also a part of the shadow is being selected. Change your tool to the rectangular selection (M), hold down Alt and draw a rectangle around the shadow, to deselect it.

18. Now that you’ve selected the horizon, press Backspace or Delete to remove it.

19. Clear the selection

20. Now select the ground with the wand (W) and remove it like before. You should also watch out here that no see-through area, like the windshield, was selected.

The Shadow21. Select the dark magenta of the shadow with the wand tool (W). Hold down Shift and click on multiple hues of that shadow to select the entire shadow. As before, watch out that nothing but the shadow is selected.

35. Change the opacity of that layer to 85% and name it „windshield“.
You’ll notice that the windshield of the JCB Fastrac is slightly bend and that creates a reflection at the corner. That reflection is too blue-ish and it will look wrong. To fix that, we’ll have to create our own fake reflection.

36. Create a new layer above the windshield one.

37. With a soft brush (B) draw a straight line down the windshield where the reflection should be.

38. Link that reflection layer to the windshield. Change the opacity so that it looks right. You can adjust the reflection with the Gaussian Blur if it’s still too „edgy“. You’ll have to experiment with this one as each reflection may look different, but skill comes with time and experience.

The Beacon Lights39. Now only the beacon lights are missing. Due to the pink background, they have a slight shift in hue.Tip: If you're in a hurry, you can skip this part. The beacon is a mostly a small element. It is barely noticable when the hue of the beacon is slightly different.

40. Select the layer with your machine. With the use of the wand (W), roughly select the transparent area around the cheval mirror. You’ll notice that the colors are too similiar to select them properly. Make use of the lasso or rectangular selection tool to deselect areas that shouldn’t be selected (Hold down Alt). Make sure that no part of the machine but the beacon light is selected in the process.

41. When the selection is okay, cut it (Ctrl+X) and place it at the same position (Ctrl+Shift+V)

42. Change the hue of the new layer (Picture -> Adjust -> Hue / Saturation), so that it’s close to the other orange.

43. Reduce the brightness with the Curves (Picture -> Adjust -> Curves) that it fits with the rest. The curve should look something like this.

44. Change the opacity of the layer to 90% and call it „Beacon“

Scaling the image down properly45. First of, create a selection of all layers together. Hold down Ctrl while you click on the thumb of a layer. When you have selected your first layer, hold down Ctrl+Shift as you click on each thumb of each layer to add them to the selection.

46. Once you’ve selected all layers, press C to activate the Crop tool.

47. The Crop frame should have snapped to the edges of your selection. If it didn’t try to crop as close to the edge of the selection. Be careful with the soft edges of the shadow though and leave some space here. Make sure you selected to remove invisible pixels in the top menu.

48. Now crop out the machine by pressing Enter twice.

49. Select all layers in your list and create a single smart object (Layer -> Smart Objects -> Convert to smart object)
Note: This will allow us to scale the layer as much as we want without losing any pixels.

50. Drag and drop the smart object into your 512x512 document with the grid.
Note: Copy & Paste doesn’t work with smart objects. You gotta drag and drop the layer from one window to another.

51. Scale the machine with Ctrl+T to document size and align it along the grid. Keep the proportions as they are. The layer should also have at least 1 pixel of free space to the edge. Otherwise there might be repeating edges in your dds.

52. At last, hide the grid and create a black background. Create an alpha mask of the tractor (Ctrl + Click the thumb of the layer. In the channel menu, click „Save selection as channel“)

53. Now you can save your store pic as a dds (2D texture, DXT5, No MIP maps).

Special Cases1.Placeable objects
There is a spot on the Photo Map for placeable objects. You’ll need to use gsToggleFlightAndNoHudMode to fly over the box, or buy some vehicle and reset it to get to the large pink plane. After placing your object, the process is the same as for normal objects

2.Grids, nets etc. without real geometry
Some tools, like the Krampe Bandit 750, have a grid. When you crop out the background, you’ll notice that some pink pixels will be stuck there, as the texture itself is using an alpha mask, most probably with anti-aliasing. You can „cheat“ a bit here. Select the area with the lasso tool (L) where the grid meets the background. Make sure the lasso doesn’t use Anti-Aliasing. Create a new layer and fill it with the color of the grid. Change the layer mode to „Color“ and link the layer to your machine.

3.Semi-transparent pipes, covers, etc.
You can use the same method as for the windshield. Just make sure that overlapping semi-transparent objects should have a higher opacity.

4.Stickers/Decals on windshields
Not too few tractors have some decals on their window panes and they mostly have soft edges, causing the pink pixels to be stuck. When you notice that your machine has a decal on it, change to the lasso tool, this time with anti-alias activated, and select the area around the decal manually.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. I may be able to answer your questions related to photoshop, but I’m not an expert of modding (at all)

I made myself a map called picture farm i took a map and deteled everything exept the store and sell point.I flattened the area around the shop and them made a big hill with a steep and straight front side.This is the background for the tool/machine i like to take a screenshot of with the printscreen key.
The ground and wall is painted with concrete but i have modified the the concrete dds and made it plain light grey.This color works well when i remove the background later with the paint.net wand.All i need is paint.net really

Is it possible to do this in GIMP 2 or paint.net? I don't have the money for photoshop

Smith Modding Co.Christian Based Modding
Isaiah 30:23- He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.:Playing FS15-19 on PCPlaying too much FS19
Specs-

nice tutorial but Is there another place to get the photomap file? I have been trying for over a year to download it and still it doesn't work. All I ever get is half of a corrupted zip file. have tried multiple computers, phones, and tablets with every browser known to man.

nice tutorial but Is there another place to get the photomap file? I have been trying for over a year to download it and still it doesn't work. All I ever get is half of a corrupted zip file. have tried multiple computers, phones, and tablets with every browser known to man.

I've just tried it and was able to download the 'Farming Simulator 17 Photo Map' from the 'Downloads' section of GDN without problems. But since you are most likely located farther away than I am from where the server providing the files for GDN is located the additional distance could cause issues that prevent you from downloading the file.

I would therefore suggest that you get in contact with the author of this thread and/or Lisertan, the Giants community manager, via PM to see if they can provide you the file via some other method and maybe also have the giants colleagues responsible for GDN look into if there is a possibility to improve the downloads from GDN.

nice tutorial but Is there another place to get the photomap file? I have been trying for over a year to download it and still it doesn't work. All I ever get is half of a corrupted zip file. have tried multiple computers, phones, and tablets with every browser known to man.

I've just tried it and was able to download the 'Farming Simulator 17 Photo Map' from the 'Downloads' section of GDN without problems. But since you are most likely located farther away than I am from where the server providing the files for GDN is located the additional distance could cause issues that prevent you from downloading the file.

I would therefore suggest that you get in contact with the author of this thread and/or Lisertan, the Giants community manager, via PM to see if they can provide you the file via some other method and maybe also have the giants colleagues responsible for GDN look into if there is a possibility to improve the downloads from GDN.

thx for the reply. Strange thing is it's only photomap and texture assemble that I have a problem with. all other files have downloaded fine. I did manage to finish my store images just had to do it the hard way.

I still can't download a working version of the Photo map or texture assemble from that sight. all others are fine. but with those two all ever get is a corrupted zip file. Over a year trying. had to make up a scene in GE with lights and some planes to make store images.